Early sign language exposure benefits deaf children

11 May 2013

According to new research, acquiring
sign language from an early age in addition to spoken or written language has
significant benefits for deaf children.

DCAL
researchers Kearsy Cormier and David Vinson, with colleagues from La Trobe
University and the University of Crete, have examined the effects of age of
sign language acquisition in deaf adults who use British Sign Language (BSL).

The study showed that adults who developed sign language
skills from birth had better grammatical judgment in BSL. Adults who reported
learning BSL from the ages of 2 to 8 years found it harder to acquire the same
language skills. For those who learned BSL after age 8, a different pattern was
apparent. These signers were accurate in responding but took a long time to
make their responses. Overall, the research suggests that learning both a sign
language and a spoken or written language will be the most beneficial for
children to make the most of their linguistic skills.

A bilingual approach can maximise linguistic and cognitive
skills to overcome any delays or difficulties due to deafness. The advantages
of early sign language exposure in particular remain clear even with rapid
advances in hearing aids and cochlear implants.

Kearsy Cormier said: “Our research has shown that to give
deaf children the best chance of successful language acquisition it is
important that they are exposed to a sign language from a very young age.
Evidence has shown it is not appropriate to wait until a child has succeeded or
failed at acquiring spoken language before introducing a sign language because
by that time it may be too late for any successful language acquisition. Since
we already know bilingualism has a range of benefits, we would advocate that
deaf children be given the opportunity to become bilingual in a signed and
spoken/written language as early as possible.”

The research has
implications for how parents of deaf children are supported to ensure their
children have a bilingual start to life. This is particularly important as
90-95% of deaf children are born to hearing parents who have little or no
experience of deafness or sign language.

The Study - First Language acquisition differs from second language
acquisition in prelingually deaf signers: Evidence from sensitivity to
grammaticality judgment in British Sign Language - was published in
the journal Cognition and is available from DCAL on request.